Review: Kingsman, The Golden Circle

Sonny Etchell is our resident film reviewer. Aged 18, he's a media journalism student at West Herts College

The first Kingsman movie surprised everyone. It was a stylish, ballsy, hilarious James Bond spoof that received more success and acclaim than it ever thought it would. The sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle sees the same cast return as well as new characters in an underwhelming but overall enjoyable film.

The cast are once again brilliant. Colin Firth,Taron Edgerton and Mark Strong are great as Kingsman agents Harry Hart, Eggsy and Merlin who, this time round, are joined by their American Equivalents, the Statesmen, portrayed by Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges and Halle Berry. The only disappointing thing about the Statesmen aspect of the film is that Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges are barely in it like the movie advertised they would be. While Julianne Moore gives a very good strong and enjoyable performance as the villainous Poppy, she was underutilised and other than her first scene never felt as threatening or evil as she should have been. Her moments were still some of the best the movie had to offer.

The action of the Kingsman is almost a character in itself with its camerawork and relentless fights. While The Golden Circle can promise more action, none of these fights ever felt quite as visceral as they did in the first film. Of course that may be because no one saw them coming in the first whereas now, our expectations for the sequel are higher, but they could have been longer and more polished, with better CGI. Once again though, it’s easy to compare it to the first film which set the bar so high. It was never going to be easy to top it.

The film suffers for putting far too much into one movie. A lot could have been cut out to make it a much more coherent and not overly long and there are a lot of unnecessary sub-plots that added nothing to the film.

The Golden Circle is just as ridiculous and off the wall as you’d expect. The unnecessary subplots and lack of fresh, originality that the first had are disappointing but If you can embrace the ridiculous and far-fetched manner of the film, you’ll be thoroughly entertained.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2017, there is till plenty to look forward to in the world of movies. The long-awaited sequel to the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049 hits cinemas on October 6th. Then, what is undoubtable the biggest film of the year, Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives on the 14th of December. It’s not a bad end to 2017!